Buy or Sell: Halladay’s High Hopes for 2013

Roy Halladay told reporters yesterday that he was ready to throw 320 innings in 2013 if that’s what it took for the Phillies to win the World Series. That’s right – Halladay is ready to throw 54 innings more than he has ever thrown before, becoming the first Phillies pitcher since Steve Carlton in 1972 to throw over 300 innings.

Halladay is ready to pitch 320 innings if that's what it takes to win a World Series. Photo: Miles Kennedy

He is planning on doing this the year after he is coming off his least healthy year since he became a Major Leaguer, the same year that his fastball lost, on average, 1.4 MPH from the year before.

While Halladay’s optimistic press conference yesterday is a staple of the eternal Spring, the Phillies will be depending heavily on bounce-back years Halladay, Ryan Howard, and Chase Utley. Howard posted career lows in all three triple-slash categories (.219/.295/.423) and 44th out of 47 first basemen in fWAR in 2012. Utley, despite playing only 83 games, was the ninth most valuable second basemen in the Majors according to fWAR but did post career lows in batting average and slugging in seasons that he had 200 or more PA and had a declining batting average for the sixth straight season.

With two question marks in the outfield and question marks at every spot in the infield but shortstop, are you buying or selling Halladay’s high hopes for 2013?